Cheryl Has Been MIA

I’d like to explain why I haven’t posted in a little while. There is so much to tell so let’s start here. Do you know what Crohn’s Disease is? Well, I won’t go into a lot of detail unless someone really wants to know more about it. Just ask. Anyway, I was diagnosed with the disease about 10 years ago. I’ve had it longer than that – I suspect I had it when I was a teenager, but didn’t find out until my mid thirties.

Crohn’s affects the intestines, digestion, the immune system and the nervous system. I have had a fairly mild case of it and I manage it pretty well, but at the end of 2009 I started having mild stomach pains and I just blew it off as a warning to back off of having solid foods for a few days and it would go away like it always does. Well, it didn’t get better and the last four weeks have been extremely painful to the point it almost incapacitated me from normal daily activities.

I’m a little better now, but I have been on a liquid diet for nearly 2 weeks. My body just needed  to have a break from working so hard digesting things. As you might suspect, my energy is very low and I want to sleep alot. Yes, I’m going to see my doctor, but they can’t get me in until Feb. 22nd. Whatever! I could die before then (just kidding…it’s not that bad).

So, I’m dealing with that and I recently found out my mom is going through some medical issues. I’ll wait until I know more before I tell you about it, but nonetheless, it makes me worry.

Some of you know that John and I go to a few conferences during January and February or we are speaking at some of those conferences. Well this year we decided to only go to one and that was Jan. 28th – Feb. 4th. It was in Florida and while we had one day of beautiful weather, our temperatures caught up with us. It was cold. And, to top it off, I was really sick with the Crohn’s thing.

We have been working on updating new ideas for the different product lines that we have. Some great new products and ideas. We finally got the 2010 PlayDate calendar out and in the mail. If you haven’t gotten one, let me know and I will be sure to get you one.

On Friday, Feb. 26th, we are going to have a ONE DAY SALE that you will be able to schedule all of your playdates for the year. Buy 3 playdates and get one free; Buy 5 playdates and get one free AND get a free photo cosmetic bag. You can prepurchase jewelry pieces and photo bags for 10% off. You have until June to place your order. We also have some great looking multi-image frames and matting for really inexpensive prices. It’s kind of our Clearance Sale. So be watching for more details about that.

What else? Oh, yeah. We have actually been busy with sessions. Usually, January and February are slow months, but we are photographing more sessions that we did last February. Yeah!!! for that. We are now getting ready to photograph our high school spokesmodels for the 2011 class.

What is a spokesmodel? It is a person that wants to be photographed by John and Ridgeway Portrait Design and doesn’t mind going out and showing our work to their peers. They get a test shoot and a summer session and depending how much they work at it they will get great discounts off of their senior portrait orders. We also have fun contest with some great prizes. It’s really fun. Our first model/parent meetings starts this Sunday and Wednesday night. If you know of a girl or guy who is outgoing and fun and a bit stylish and graduating in 2011, let them know about this. We are still taking applications, but those will be cut off in the next couple of weeks.  Here’s a link that you can send them so they can get some more information. http://www.ridgewayportraitdesign.com/spokesmodel We would appreciate your help in passing it along.

So that is why I have been MIA for the last little while. I have lots to share and I’ll be unveiling it all here first. Thanks for staying with me. I promise to share more. We have so much fun stuff going on this year that I hope I can articulate it so that you can picture it.

Until later, stay warm…

Cheryl